1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air traffic control support system for supporting the operating control of aircraft in or around an airport from a ground station.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the safety of an aircraft has greatly improved by support from the ground station with radar or an air traffic control system. Such air traffic control support systems may include, for example, an aerodrome radar processing unit for performing the traffic control of aircraft or vehicle that employs an airport surface detection radar for detecting a target such as an aircraft or vehicle moving within an aerodrome and a precision approach radar (PAR) equipment for use to guide landing of an aircraft approaching to the aerodrome, as disclosed in JP-A-3-220486, and a runway approach warning system for the airport which is improved from the airport surface detection equipment (so-called ASDE), as disclosed in JP-A-9-119983.
In JP-A-9-66900, an apparatus for surveillance of flight conditions of an aircraft has been described to detect weather conditions (temperature, wind velocity and direction) in surroundings around an airport, and create a normal airway in accordance with surrounding conditions under which the aircraft takes off or lands.
In the related air traffic control systems, however, the take-off or landing interval from one aircraft to the next is determined by a controller in accordance with air traffic control orders of each aerodrome and from a flight plan on the basis of an aircraft type, the take-off or landing time, and positional information. In any way, no consideration is particularly taken of an influence of wake turbulence arising on the runway due to taking off or landing of a preceding plane on a succeeding plane. However, there is enough time interval between each taking off or landing to assure the safety of the aircraft operations. In practice, even if the strength of the wake turbulence has decayed to such an extent as not to affect the succeeding plane, the controller makes an instruction of the take-off time to the succeeding plane on the basis of the interval of taking off or landing in accord with the air traffic control orders of the aerodrome. Therefore, there was a problem that the air traffic control is inefficient while the safety of aircraft operations is assured.
In each aerodrome, there is tendency of increasing the number of flights (particularly in rush hours) as uses of the aircraft have expanded in recent years. However, when the taking off or landing interval of aircraft is determined in accord with the air traffic control orders, it is possibly difficult to increase the number of flights. Or if the number of flights is increased by laying another runway, various problems may possibly arise such as need of securing a runway space, and some influence on surrounding environment. It is not easy to realize it.
This invention has been achieved to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of invention to provide a new air traffic control support system that can cope with the increasing number of flights by detecting a wake turbulence occurring in the runway sky, and can realize the safer air traffic control.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new air traffic control support system that can prompt the controller to perform a more efficient control instruction.
Incidentally, hereinafter, a runway sky means a sky over a runway.
An air traffic control support system according to a first aspect of the invention, comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft; and
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence.
An air traffic control support system according to a second aspect of the invention, comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft;
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence;
a weather information acquiring unit adapted to acquire weather information in the surroundings around the runway; and
a display unit adapted to display the decay time,
wherein the decay time predicting unit predicts the decay time of the wake turbulence detected by the wake turbulence detecting unit on the basis of the weather information.
In a third aspect of the invention, the air traffic control support system according to the second aspect of the invention, is provided wherein the weather information acquiring unit has an airport meteorological Doppler radar installed within an airport.
An air traffic control support system according to a fourth aspect of the invention comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft;
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence;
an aircraft detecting unit adapted to detect airframe information of an aircraft;
a take-off time predicting unit adapted to predict take-off time of the aircraft being stand-by to take off on the runway, on the basis of the airframe information of the aircraft and the decay time; and
a display unit adapted to display the take-off time.
An air traffic control support system according to a fifth aspect of the invention comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft;
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence;
a data storage unit adapted to store past decay time information of wake turbulence occurring in the runway sky; and
a display unit adapted to display the decay time, wherein the decay time predicting unit extracts, from the past decay time information, decay time information corresponding to the wake turbulence detected by the wake turbulence detecting unit to calculate the decay time of the wake turbulence detected by the wake turbulence detecting unit on the basis of the decay time information.
An air traffic control support system according to a sixth aspect of the invention comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft;
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence; and
a display unit adapted to display the decay time,
wherein the decay time predicting unit predicts the decay time on the basis of temporal changes of the wake turbulence detected by the wake turbulence detecting unit.
An air traffic control support system according to a seventh aspect of the invention comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft;
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence; and
a transmission unit adapted to convert the decay time into an aural signal and transmit the aural signal to an aircraft being stand-by to take off or land,
wherein the aural signal is output in voice on the aircraft.
An air traffic control support system according to a eighth aspect of the invention comprises:
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft;
a decay time predicting unit adapted to predict decay time of the wake turbulence; and
a transmission unit adapted to convert the decay time into a message signal and transmit the message signal to an aircraft being stand-by to take off or land,
wherein the message signal is displayed on the aircraft.
An air traffic control support system according to a ninth aspect of the invention comprises:
an aircraft detecting unit adapted to detect an aircraft by the use of a plurality of radar apparatuses and to generate aircraft information;
a data storage unit adapted to store map information corresponding to the plurality of radar apparatuses;
a wake turbulence detecting unit adapted to detect a wake turbulence occurring in a runway sky due to taking off or landing of an aircraft and to generate wake turbulence information;
an image synthesizing process section adapted to synthesize images of the aircraft information, the map information, and the wake turbulence information to output the images as air traffic control information corresponding to the plurality of radar apparatuses; and
a display unit adapted to display the air traffic control information in a plurality of subwindows positioned on a screen.
In a tenth aspect of the invention, the air traffic control support system according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, is provided wherein the wake turbulence detecting unit has an optical transmitter-receiver scanning with a laser beam.